


Mentor: Rogue

by Dessoestma



Series: The Stories of Vander Carris [2]
Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: (vaguely. just the mention of the last name of the character), Gen, ask to tag, character death mention, past sexual assault mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-02
Updated: 2019-05-02
Packaged: 2020-02-16 03:17:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18683047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dessoestma/pseuds/Dessoestma
Summary: Vander was a simple man with little experience in killing - but to become a vigilante one needed to be trained in the arts of killing or disarming. Seeking out a (in)famous assassin to train him - Vander manages to find her.





	Mentor: Rogue

**Author's Note:**

> This work as is unedited (as it is an older work). It may be updated in the future.

Vander had wandered long and far across the Sword Coast - helping people. But he only skilled with his bow and had managed to get a bit too close for comfort for people who charged at him directly and often barely managed to take down someone in close quarters. So he decided he needed someone to teach him how to fight in close quarters.

He knew the assassins guild had a particular skilled assassin who he thought would help him. She was a famous rogue, knowing for being ruthless and brutal - if only just in her actions. She had morals, morals Vander actually agreed with. But from what he was told of her she would be hard to impress and even convince to teach him. So he asked if someone in the guild could arrange a meeting - he was upfront about his intentions. They didn’t seem to believe he could actually gain her tutelage but they decide to humour him and arrange a meeting between him and this assassin.

Then he gathered what intel he could on her - to burn away the days he had between the meeting and her. It was easier than he thought - despite having very little transferable skills to be a spy and assassin. He hoped that would be enough to impress her - someone as unskilled as him able to learn about her. It was what he was hoping for anyway.

Then the day of the meeting dawned and Vander went to stake out the outside of their meeting place. He burned the day away by simple walking around the outside and watching - waiting to see if anyone went inside. He couldn’t be around all four corners of the abandoned warehouse at once and he never saw anyone enter it. He did see many people walk past it - as if it did not exist. He sat, on the floor in an alleyway watching it for a long time and not a soul disturbed him as he waited. Strangely, when he caught a few peoples eyes they’d look away quickly. It was a strange thing he had not observed before. 

The day went by slowly and soon it was time for him to get up - stand into the moonlight projected from the night sky and meet his mentor-to-be.

He walked around to the back of the warehouse and saw the door now stood ajar. It had not been as such during his occasional patrol around the place. It was obvious he was expected. He blessed his elven heritage for being able to see in the dark, as without the moonlight it was hard enough to see anything inside the warehouse.

He was encased by wooden walls and stone falls - both left and right that ended with doorways with no doors. They seemed to lead to the same place, but he still quietly walked down to the left door way - adopting his near silent hunters tread. It was much more silent against foliage of a forest than it was against the stone floor.

He was cautious as he approached and poke his head around the doorway and looked around the room in front of him. He saw nothing but a wide open space with a staircase that led to an inside balcony that overlooked the floor. He could just about make out that there were rafters that ran the length of the place. He saw no one and nothing around and heard no signs of life.

He stepped into the room cautiously. He walked to the middle of it and still heard or saw other signs of life other than himself. He turned in a circle slowly, seeing nothing. He saw an enclosed room on the balcony. It must have been where Lily was. Instead of going to disturb her, he sat on the floor with his legs crossed and closed his eyes. He pushed down the hood of his cloak and bowed his head. He would wait patiently as he had all day.

‘Vander Wynkrana. I’ve never had someone specifically request I teach them. The guild was quite nice to humour your request.’ Her voice was a soft purr, it appeared to bounce off the walls. She didn’t have a high pitched voice, more of a neutral tone with no accent. She certainly wasn’t from Waterdeep. It was just as hard to pinpoint the origin of her voice. Above, below, in front of him, behind him. He couldn’t tell. He opened his eyes and scanned the area slowly, finding no one.

‘Are you sure you want to play this game? With your mind and your mentality?’ Her voice had an edge of steel and bitterness to it. Vander tilted his head. He decided to make use of his intel, then.  
‘I heard you were recovering from a great loss. I thought you would not let that loss sway your judgement. But perhaps I was wrong.’ He said it with as neutral tone as he could muster.

It was almost as if the air in the place dropped a few degrees. He could hear the tell-tale sign of angry breathing and looked up. It sounded like it came from the rafters but then suddenly everything was silent.

‘I am the Black Lily! The rotten flower and courier of death! All those who dare defy me face the wrath of my blade!’ She thundered, the walls making her words echo. Rage ran through her voice as it rose with each word she spoke. Vander flinched. 

He heard the sound of a dagger cutting through the air and felt as several daggers sunk into the ground by him. One by each of his feet, one in-between his crossed legs and one that nearly skimmed down the length of his spine. He tensed up out of reflex but relaxed and squashed down his panic. If she wanted to hurt him she would have. He looked at the daggers and saw they were buried up to their hilts - demonstrating the force of their throw. He sat up straight and looked upwards. He saw glowing blue eyes, filled with rage glaring down at him but could not make out a face or even a figure above him. The eyes moved as if the woman above him went from being stood to crouching but he still could not make out a body.

‘Do not presume to think me and know my pain. Unless you want me to dig up the dregs of your own pain - /Vander Valphine/.’ She hissed, seething.

Vander wasn’t sure why but he felt a rise of panic burst in his chest and he looked down and away. Taking several slow minutes to take in long drags of breath to calm whatever panic had a hold of him. She was silent until he looked up again, but not at her - rather one of the walls of the warehouse.

‘I did not mean any disrespect to you and your grief. I only meant to demonstrate my intelligence and potential to you with the knowledge I had obtained about you.’ He said once he regained complete control of his breathing.

Lily above him, let out a slightly musical laughter. Almost elf-like in nature. He looked up but saw nothing.

‘Naive. Fitting for someone like you. If it was so simple to obtain information about me from my guild - would I have not been caught for the atrocities I have commited? Wouldn’t I be rotting in prison or dead?’ Her tone dripped with amusement on every word.

Vander titled his head and thought about it, nodding slowly. She was right.

‘I orchrestrated every word that you know about me - after you set foot in the guild the first time. I have attempted to teach one or two before - but they were too stupid for me to take on as students.’

She dropped from above him, landing near metres of him in a crouch. She wore a cloak that looked to made out of pure shadows, which explained why she was practically invisible on the rafters. She had the hood up but she turned to him and he could see her face. She had a pretty face but the outstanding features were her eyes and ears. Tapered at the ends like an elves but barely bigger than a humans. Her bright blue icy eyes were much more visible from this distance and he could see the stripes that run in her iris. Half-elf. Only they had the stripes of their iris’ that showed in the glow of their eyes if they even had it at all. He then saw what she clutched in her outstretched hands. They were wicked silver daggers that were the length of her forearms. She stood, knives by her sides. She walked to him.

‘You have showed the most potential out of all the people I have tested. But know this, Vander.’ Her voice was a purr again but it did not echo as before.

She kneeled in front of him, her hands crossing over her knees with her daggers loosely gripped in her hands. She stared him directly in the eye and he felt intimidated by her loose posture and her knives.

‘If I ever perceive you as a threat to me or my guild, I will have no qualms with ending your life where you stand. Am I understood?’ She said, and moved so one of her daggers points was underneath his chin.

He froze in response but then nodded carefully, so as to not cut himself on her dagger. She smiled at him and it looked perfectly pleasant. She withdrew her knives and stood. She turned away and started walking to where Vander had entered the room. She gestured for him to follow with a hand empty of a knife.

‘Come, Vander. We have work to do.’

He rolled his shoulders to unfreeze his body and stood. He followed after her, walked by her side but a bit behind.

‘When do we begin?’ Vander asked, earnestly. A bit of a bounce in his step now.

‘When the sun first kisses the horizon before it raises, Vander.’ She said, mirth in her voice.


End file.
